1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a cabinet hinge with a supporting-wall-related part in the form of an elongated sheet-metal supporting arm of essentially channel-shaped cross section coupled by a link to the door-related part. The arm is mounted releasably and adjustably on a mounting plate fastened to the wall of a cabinet carcase. The supporting arm's flanges are at least partially astride the mounting plate, and its web has at its cabinet-interior end an elongated opening through which a screw is driven into the mounting plate and a tap is provided in the web in which a threaded spindle is contained at the bottom end of which a holding head of increased diameter connected to the spindle by a neck of lesser diameter is inserted into an open-ended slot provided in the mounting plate. The holding head is thus secured against lifting away from the mounting plate.
2. The Prior Art
In modern furniture manufacture articulated hinges of this kind, especially four-joint hinges, have come into widespread use for hanging doors on cabinets (German Pat. 2 614 446). The hinges are installed on mounting plates previously mounted on the cabinet, while the cabinet-related hinge part, in the form of an elongated supporting arm, can be fastened to it for adjustment in at least two coordinate directions. The rapid and simple mounting and dismounting as well as the said adjustments in two coordinate directions in the modern hinges of the kind here in question are made possible by the fact that the supporting arm is clamped on the mounting plate at a desired relative lengthwise setting by a screw driven into the mounting plate and passing through a slot open at the carcase-interior end. This lengthwise adjustment makes it possible, for example, to adjust an overlapping or lipped door with respect to the gap existing, when it is closed, between its inside surface and the edge of the carcase walls. Also necessary is a second, horizontal adjustment at right angles to the above-mentioned lengthwise adjustment, to permit varying the degree of overlap of the door with respect to the edge of the carcase. This adjustment is made in the hinges of the kind described above by means of a threaded spindle driven into a tap in the web of the supporting arm, the spindle having at its inside end, i.e., the mounting plate end, a holding head of enlarged diameter connected to it by a neck section of smaller diameter. This holding head is inserted into an open-ended slot or cut-out in the mounting plate, and is engaged by the laterally projecting edges of the slot. It is clear that by turning the threaded spindle of the supporting arm further in or further out the supporting arm will be pushed away from the mounting plate or drawn closer to it. Thus, when the spindle is rotated the supporting arm will be raised or lowered, since the spindle is disposed at a distance ahead of the point further inside of the carcase where the supporting arm is supported and fastened on the mounting plate and thus it is fulcrumed at that point. On account of the arcuate raising and lowering movement of the supporting arm during adjustment the attitude of the axis of rotation of the threaded spindle will likewise change, though but slightly. This, however, also signifies that the neck between the holding head and the bottom of the threaded spindle, in which the edges of the slot are engaged, has to be made somewhat longer than the thickness of the edges engaged in this gap, since otherwise no change in the angle of the threaded spindle would be possible, and if a change of the overlap were to be attempted by turning the threaded spindle in or out the spindle would jam in the slot. Due to the existing clearance the supporting arm is thus exclusively held by the screw tightening it onto the mounting plate. Since this screw is provided at the inside end of the supporting arm and mounting plate, the outside end of the supporting arm is at a relatively great distance from the point at which it is fastened, i.e., the stresses which the door applies through the hinge mechanism produce a relatively high bending moment in the front part of the supporting arm, which might also lead to the deformation of the supporting arm to the extent of the clearance between the holding head and the mounting plate. In the case of the supporting arms stamped from sheet metal which are nowadays increasingly used, such deformations are within the uncritical elastic range of the material, but a door hung on a cabinet with such hinges has a certain instability, which is not desired.